The boys knew what paths to take, nor was the distance very great.

Benjamin on his former visit to his aunt had spent a day with the good people at this very farm house.

Now, alas, all had been swept away, and the place had been taken possession of for the time being by the authorities, to be used as a supplementary pest house, where the homeless sick could be temporarily housed.

Generally it was but for a few hours or a couple of days that such shelter was needed.

The great common grave, barely a quarter of a mile away, received day by day the great majority of the unfortunate ones who were brought in.
In all London proper there were only two pest houses used at this time, one on some fields beyond Old Street, and the other in Westminster; but as the virulence of the distemper increased, and the suburbs became so terribly infected, and such numbers of persons fleeing this way and that would fall stricken by the wayside, it became necessary to find places of some sort where they could be received, and the authorities began to take possession of empty houses--generally farmsteads standing in a convenient but isolated position--and to use them for this melancholy purpose.